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It’s a Baby Book Blogger – Penelope Lolohea

Filed under: Baby Book Blogger

Just like my Freaky Friday Interviews of aspiring authors, I’ve discovered that there’s a whole world of YA bloggers just starting out. I thought it would be fun to highlight some of these newbie bloggers because-lets face it-bloggers are freaky book lovers too and we should all work together in our quest to take over the world one YA book at a time.

Today’s interview is with Penelope Lolohea.

Penelope and I met on Book Blogs.  She’s the creator of The Reading Fever.  How do you know if you have the reading fever?

Yup!  I have the fever and you will too after this interview.  Penelope is awesome and you’re going to love her and her blog!  

Can you start off by telling me a little bit about yourself and how you started blogging?

I am a 22-year-old mother, with an insatiable passion for reading. I devour books, and judge them according to how they make my mind think, and my heart feel. I started blogging after reading so many books that had set my mind reeling, I just had to talk about them. My son is currently going through cancer treatments, and so when I thought about how I felt while reading, my mind automatically translated those feelings into "symptoms"; increased heart rate, loss of sleep, inability to function, heartbreak, etc.. I only had to give myself a diagnosis, and viola! The Reading Fever was born. 

Oh, my goodness-I’m so sorry to hear about your little one.  I’m sending (((((hugs))))).  
Can you tell us a little bit about your blog?  How long has it been up and running?  Review policy etc…

Thanks for the hugs! It’s been sort of a rough time, but this blog (along with my reading) has been very therapeutic. It’s something that is purely "me time", which helps ease the stress that can come with being a caretaker. Because of this, it’s a fairly new blog; I started it on the 5th of January, so it’s almost 3 weeks old. It’s been an awesome few weeks, though! 

 

My review policy is pretty simple, although I like to put a lot of words into these things. Basically, I’ll review any book I finish, and I promise to be completely honest in my reviews, whether they are positive, or negative. When I review a book, I pay attention to the way the words flow, how natural the dialog sounds, and how much depth there is to the characters. I’m looking for these things because they all tie in to how the book makes the reader feel. I think emotions are powerful connectors, and I want to use The Reading Fever to spread the word about books that make you "feverish" with emotion.

Being a caretaker is hard, hard work.  I’m so happy you’ve found a way to not only use your passion for therapy, but to connect with the rest of us feverish book nuts out there.  I think it’s awesome and I hope this interview sends a few more followers your way.  

You just told us why you started blogging, but how did you do it?  If someone else was looking to start their own YA Book Blog, what advice would you give them and what things would you tell them NOT to do?

Well, a very little-known secret of mine, is that I actually had another book blog that I kept back in 2008. It was terrible. I started it because of my love of reading, but I did everything wrong with it: I didn’t think about my reviews before writing them, I only posted when I felt like it, and I wrote overly positive reviews because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I quit after realizing my mistakes, and closed the blog; it wasn’t what I had thought it would become. I still have a ways to go, but I have since learned a lot more about book blogging. Even though I have only been back in the game for a few months, I can say this to future YA bloggers: be honest with your reviews, put thought into writing them, and be nice, even if you have something negative to say. People will value your true opinion, over your fake one, and will read even the worst review, if it is based on facts, instead of rude comments meant to hurt the author. 

I love your honesty! I’ve been evaluating my blogging and trying to learn how to make mine better too.  I think that is great advice-I’m trying very hard to blog on schedule….starting…..right….now!  (I’ve kept to that M-W-F schedule so far!)

So could you tell me your top 5 books/authors are?  You can really tell a lot about people by knowing their favorite books.  :o)

 

Top 5? Oh, that is such a hard question for me! I have about 10 favorite books, that I can’t ever seem to put into a numbered order. They are all so different that picking one and casting off another is nearly impossible for me. I can’t judge them against each other. I will say, however, that I do have a #1 book. It is, and has always been, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. It is a fantastic book, and I think that Scarlett ‘O Hara is the most complex, interesting, realistic, and infuriating, character I have ever come across. 

 

But since you asked for five, here are four other books that I picked randomly from my top 10. I recommend them all.
 

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillippa Gregory
 

The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
 

The A Great and Terrible Beauty series by Libba Bray
 

The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

I’ve always been fascinated by Scarlett too!  If you could review you’re dream author right now…who would it be and why?

That would be Suzanne Collins, because her Hunger Games trilogy is pure genius!
 

Without a doubt!!!!!  She is amazing and I have to agree with you-interviewing her would be incredible!

Thank you so much for stopping by and spreading the reading fever.

I know that everyone will be sending healing thoughts to your little one.  Please let us know if there is ever anything we can do to help.

*click on the picture to learn more about Mason and find out how you can help.

I’ve loved interviewing you and you know that you’ll be seeing me over on your blog!

If you love Penelope and The Reading Fever, you can also find her on twitter and Goodreads.

Leave a Comment

Comments

6 Responses | TrackBack URL | Comments Feed

1. 
   

   Reply
   At 2:16 pm Linda G. said:

   Penelope, you have a charming blog. I love your ranking system for books!

   Hugs to your little one. Cancer treatments are not fun — I wish you both the best possible outcome.
2. 
   

   Reply
   At 3:54 pm Monica B.W. said:

   Hey Penelope, nice to meet you. And I loved the Reading Fever idea!

   A big hug for your little one too, and I hope he gets better. My prayers are for him.
3. 
   

   Reply
   At 12:42 am writerjodimoore said:

   I totally have the reading fever! Great to meet you, Penelope. I look forward to reading your blog.

   Hearts, hugs and prayers going out to you and your sweet son that the treatments are a success.
4. 
   

   Reply
   At 4:50 am Juju at Tales of Whimsy.com said:

   Penelope is an amazing gal. An inspiration and fantastic blogger/reviewer. I'm so happy you featured her 🙂
5. 
   

   Reply
   At 1:40 pm Kimberly Sabatini said:

   Thanks so much! I think Penelope is very inspirational and it would make me so excited to see a bunch of people discover her and her blog! Thanks for stoping over Juju!
6. 
   

   Reply
   At 10:13 pm Penelope Lolohea said:

   Thanks so much Kimberly! I enjoyed doing this interview with you. 🙂

   Thanks everyone for your comments, hugs, and prayers! They are definitely felt by my son and I. 🙂

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